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I was feeling like doing a lot of juggling last night but old friend Anna dropped in on a surprise visit from Australia so I spent pretty much all night nattering. She seemed very pleased to see that TWJC is still going after so many years. Me too. Nicola returned from her jaunt in Italy &, well, complained about the heat mostly but also told of a great EJC. She also explained to me that graphene won't be very useful for aircraft because it's too brittle. I enjoyed this gem of a conversation with Jenny:

Jenny: There's so much of Australia I haven't seen.Me: I bet there's a lot of England you haven't seen.Jenny: I've been to Scotland I'll have you know.Me: ...

I can understand.The effective German word for UK (and Ireland, without Ireland) is England. In that case the problem is made a lot worse as the more correct alternatives are a pain to say, combined with people not necessarily understanding what UK, GB, BI, etc. actually 100% mean. Therefore people default to the simplest and easiest.

I thought my joke would have been sufficiently obvious, but only because of context.

And, for what it's worth, I am looking forward to visiting NZ one day far more than Aus ;) I can even frequently detect the accent - although that is much more tricky at times.

I see your point a little better now Jon although I still think Jenny was correct in the general point she was making (even though I wasn't present when said conversation took place). And my question to you remains.

Having been fortunate enough to visit both New Zealand and Australia I would say there is no comparison possible as they are both different countries and therefore have totally different characteristics.

However, if comparing the people of the two countries I would generalise that Australians tend to be extremely direct in their conversation whereas NeW Zealanders tend to be cuddly like koala bears (although koalas are native to Australia and should not under any circumstances be confused with their more aggressive relative the drop bear).